The Path of Decentralization for Ethereum: Analyzing the Key Role of "Exit Testing"

At the recent EthCC conference held in France, the founder of Ethereum presented a thought-provoking viewpoint: if Ethereum cannot achieve true decentralization, its future development will face significant challenges. To this end, he proposed three key testing criteria to assess whether a protocol possesses sustainable decentralization capabilities. These three standards are: exit test, internal attack test, and trusted computing base test.

Among them, exiting the test is considered the most fundamental and important step. It directly points to a core issue: if the project team disbands or the platform goes offline, can users still safely withdraw their assets and complete interactions?

The Essence of Exiting the Test

The core of testing exit lies in verifying whether the project allows users to autonomously exit, withdraw assets, and interact on-chain even when the development team is completely "out of contact." This is more like a fallback clause, emphasizing not the completeness of daily functions, but under the most extreme conditions, testing whether a protocol truly realizes "Decentralization."

As early as 2022, the founder of Ethereum criticized the "auxiliary wheel" architecture adopted by most Rollups, pointing out that they overly rely on centralized operations and human intervention to ensure security. A data platform divides Rollups into three decentralization stages: "Stage 0," which completely relies on centralized control; "Stage 1," which has limited dependency; and "Stage 2," which is fully decentralized. This also reflects the degree of dependence of Rollups on human intervention.

A core indicator for assessing the decentralization phase is: can users independently complete fund withdrawals without the cooperation of operators? This seemingly simple question is actually crucial.

Exit Capability: The Ultimate Goal of Decentralization

Why have Bitcoin and Ethereum become the top choices for new users and institutions entering the market? Because even without founders, these networks can still operate smoothly. For new users or institutional investors, the most crucial consideration is often "Can I withdraw my funds at any time?"

The exit test directly answers this question; it is the "last mile" of achieving decentralization in blockchain and serves as a practical verification of the concept of "not your keys, not your coins." If users must rely on a specific front-end interface or development team to withdraw assets or interact, it essentially remains a centralized trust relationship. A protocol that truly passes the exit test allows users to independently complete operations using on-chain tools and third-party front ends, even if all nodes go offline and all operational staff leave.

This is not just a technical issue, but also a realization of the Web3 concept. Many seemingly decentralized DeFi or L2 projects may actually hide centralized channels such as upgrade keys, backdoor logic, and freezing mechanisms. Once these mechanisms are abused, user assets will be completely at the mercy of others. The purpose of the exit test is to examine and eliminate these mechanisms; only when the user's exit path does not rely on any party can this protocol be truly trusted.

Exit Test: Broad Applications in the Web3 Field

The exit test as a core criterion for the security design of Ethereum and Rollup has actually been widely practiced in other areas of Web3 for a long time. Taking wallets as an example, as the core tool for asset management, they must possess high levels of security and transparency. This includes key factors such as the randomness of mnemonic and private key generation, and firmware security being open source. Mainstream Web3 wallets almost all allow the export of private keys or mnemonics, enabling users to easily migrate their assets to any wallet software or hardware device.

This design is essentially a "exit mechanism": users can permanently control their funds without needing to trust the wallet company. This transforms users from merely being "experiencers" of Web3 product services to truly being "owners" with asset sovereignty.

Build a Decentralization Framework

The three core tests proposed by the founder of Ethereum actually form a complete loop:

1. Exit Test: Ensure that users can redeem themselves after the project ceases operations.
2. Internal Attack Testing: Verify whether the system can withstand internal malice from developers or collusion attacks.
3. Trusted Computing Base Testing: Assess whether the amount of code the user needs to trust is sufficiently small and whether it is auditable.

These three tests together form the decentralized "framework" for the long-term sustainable development of Ethereum, truly realizing the concept of "trustless, just verify."

In the Web3 world, the "trust" that does not require trust essentially stems from verifiability. Only through transparent mathematics and algorithms, allowing users to verify at any time, can one truly feel at ease without worrying about external factors such as the ethical integrity of the project team.

As the founder of Ethereum said, if we cannot achieve this, Ethereum may ultimately become just a memory of a generation, forgotten by history like many things that were once glorious but ended up being mediocre. Therefore, ensuring true decentralization through mechanisms such as withdrawal testing will be key to the future development of Ethereum and the entire Web3 ecosystem.